INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Wisconsin women’s basketball used a second-half surge to get back in the game, but Indiana had the last shot as it defeated Wisconsin 51-52 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
It was the final game for UW head coach Jane Albright, who resigned Feb. 25 after nine seasons at Wisconsin. The Badgers closed the year off at 7-21 overall, and Indiana emerged to 13-14 on the season and will face Penn State tomorrow.
“My team did their best tonight, and just like Kristi (Seeger) said, they fought hard for me,” Wisconsin head coach Jane Albright said. “That is really all I need to know. That is why I will sleep tonight.”
The Badgers held Indiana without a field goal in the first 11 minutes of the second half. While initiating an 18-0 run to take the lead at 36-29 with 10:22 left in the game.
“In the second half, our offense had a steady tempo. We had a lot shots,” Albright said of the team’s second half. “We played some very good basketball at that point.”
With scoring hard to come by the Badgers relied on their inside game, as 6-foot-7 center Lello Gebisa came off the bench to score a career-high 23 points. She was the only Badger in double figures.
In a defensive struggle in which neither team shot over 36 percent in the first half, Indiana took the early 8-0 lead with 15:50 left in the first stanza.
While the Wisconsin offence sputtered, IU extended its lead to 17-5 with 11:22 left.
Geibsa was instant offense off the bench, hitting ten of her 23 points in the first half to close the gap to 18-24 with 2:40 left. IU scored the last 4 points to lead 28-18 at the half.
The Badgers hit just 6 of 24 field goals for 25 percent and where out-rebounded 23-14 by the shorter Hooisers.
With Wisconsin back in the game, Indiana finally hit a field goal and went on a 16-8 run to regain the lead 45-44 with 2:54 left.
The Badgers went up 48-45 with 1:36 left with a Lello Gebisa, basket but Indiana’s Kirsten Bodine hit a three-pointer that tied the game with 1:18 left. Gebisa converted an old-fashion three-point play to regain the lead with 1:04 to play.
Jenny Demuth converted a one-and-one for the Hoosiers with 34 seconds remaining and the Badgers entered the last 30 seconds leading by one.
The Badgers turned the ball over on the press, and IU’s Bodine hit an off-balance shot in the lane with to give IU the final lead.
With fouls to give, IU exhausted the clock and the Badgers were unable to get a shot off.
“In the last few minutes we made some critical mistakes. They made a couple of shots you have to give them credit for,” Albright said of the final minutes. “Scoring was really hard in the first half, and to come back and score 33 in the second half was really a lot of gutsy play.”
“We wanted to play our hearts out for her,” senior Kristi Seeger said regarding Albright final game as head coach. “We didn’t want to leave anything on the court. I thought we did that. It was a pretty fun game, other than the final result.”
“It was a very rewarding season and a very rewarding nine seasons at Wisconsin.” Albright added. “This is a great conference to coach in with great coaches and great student athletes. It has been very enjoyable.”
— compiled from staff reports
